OREANDA-NEWS. February 13, 2017. Tellurian, a company developing a US Gulf coast LNG export project, has become publicly traded with the closing of its merger with Magellan Petroleum.

The new entity, which will retain the Tellurian name, will primarily focus on the proposed Driftwood LNG export project near Carlyss, Louisiana, scheduled to come on line in the second quarter of 2022. The merger was announced in August to allow Tellurian to raise funds for the multi-billion-dollar project. Magellan told the US Securities and Exchange Commission in October it may sell up to \\$500mn in shares for the project.

Tellurian was founded in early 2016 by former Cheniere Energy chief executive Charif Souki and former BG Group chief operating officer Martin Houston. The experience of the two men could give Driftwood advantages over the dozens of other US LNG export projects vying to come on line. France's Total in December agreed to acquire a 23pc stake in Tellurian for \\$207mn. Total, in partnership with Tellurian and other investors, plans to develop an integrated project by acquiring US gas production sites and exporting LNG from Driftwood.

Previously in December, US-based GE Oil and Gas invested \\$25mn in the project, with the goal of providing technology to the facility.

Denver-based Magellan — founded in the early 1950s by William F. Buckley Sr, father of deceased US conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr — was an oil and gas exploration and production company that focused on carbon dioxide-enhanced oil recovery in the Rocky Mountain region.

Driftwood plans to charge lower liquefaction fees of about \\$2.50/mmBtu. Cheniere's most recent executed long-term US liquefaction capacity contracts charge \\$3.50/mmBtu.

Driftwood would have combined capacity of up to 26mn t/yr, equivalent to 3.3 Bcf/d (93mn m?/d) of gas, from five plants. The project would include a 74-mile (119km) pipeline to bring feed gas.

Driftwood is in the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC's) pre-filing phase and has said it expects to file a formal FERC application in March. It expects to get FERC construction approval in March 2018. If successful, construction would start in the second quarter of 2018 and full production would be achieved by the second quarter of 2025.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has issued pending approval for Driftwood to export up to 26mn t/yr, equivalent to 4.1 Bcf/d (42.2bn m?/yr) of gas, to countries that have free trade agreements (FTAs) with the US. Driftwood has applied for a license to export up to the same volume to non-FTA nations, but the DOE will only review that application if Driftwood gets environmental approval from FERC, a process that can cost up to \\$150mn for complex LNG projects.